New Sires – Dulverton Medaglia M028

The late winter and spring of 2018 at Shannon Vale had produced conditions not conducive to us committing to a major A.I. Programme. While our cows were in reasonable condition at calving, pasture conditions were judged as not being substantial enough to bring lactating cows into Oestrous early enough to A.I. As a result we took the decision to reduce our A.I. Programme from three hundred head to one hundred and thirty head (70 heifers & 55 cows).

We weren’t too concerned re this unfortunate situation being thrust upon us, as we believed we did have a set of impressive young Homebred Sires capable of stepping into the Mantle and shouldering the responsibility of siring future Sale Bulls and Replacement heifers. We believed D. Medaglia M028 to be the lead contender of this group.

What Made D. Medaglia M028 a Standout.

PEDIGREE

His Pedigree is very appealing, being by one of the better Sires used at Dulverton in Carabar Gun Smoke J134 and out of the Breed Impact Sire B. Frankel F510‘S  daughter  D. Mittagong K204. Frankel’s  ultimate Value will unfortunately never be properly recognised because of DD. We did use C. Gun Smoke over heifers and are able to report only one “mishap”. Frankel has produced a bull we used and  who topped our 2015 Sale D. Jackpot J267. J267 was second for MSA Index and Carcase recorded marbling in his Cohort Group of the Young Angus Sire Benchmark programme. It’s a wonderful Family Background.

CALVING EASE


We are extremely conscious of this Trait, it and Fertility are Numbers 1 & 2  re the Trait we are most keen on promoting STAYABILITY. Don’t forget Dr. Rex Butterfield’s quotation “Dead Calves have distressingly poor growth rates”.
       1) M028 is born early in his Drop
       2) M028 is born from a first calf heifer in K204
       3) M028 is born unassisted from that first calf heifer N.B. Goes without saying that the pair would have been “Disposed” of had he been assisted, that policy has been in place since 1981.

M028’s objective Calving Ease data is “concerning”, Breedplan particularly hard on him the severity of his treatment difficult for us to comprehend, given our knowledge of his background and his calving record at Dulverton to date. Note his first maiden daughter to calve, Q182, a twin, has done so with NO ISSUE.
Consider M028’s Igenity Beef Calving Ease and Birth Weight data, it would appear more favourable and please make a point of looking up the “Heifer Suitability” Table we have produced and posted on the website.

CLICK HERE FOR HEFIER SUITABILITY TABLE

PELVIS BUILDERS

M028 is from a long line of Pelvis Builders, he has an ideal pelvis both from a Shape and Capacity perspective,  to promote the all important Trait, Calving Ease. It is our contention that the pelvis needs to have adequate capacity to enable the growth and development of a reasonably sized foetus. Should the foetus be too small at term, say less than 33kg to 40kg (lighter end maiden heifers, top end mature cows) then Calf Survival and Ultimate Growth will be negatively impacted.

In the formative years at Dulverton we did measure Pelvic Area, at 14 months with heifers weighing 300kg our Goal was 250 to 280 sq cm. We have no doubt this procedure has assisted greatly in the development of the Dulverton Cow Herds ability to Calve easily.

Pelvic Shape has a significant impact on Calving ease, it’s our contention the hips need to be set higher than the Pin Bones and that the thurls need to be structured so they are wide and allow for the pins to be set lower than the hips thereby setting up that characteristic “Roll” from hip to Pins. Pins also need to be wide. Note natural selection over millions of years has selected this Shape to ensure a high percentage of offspring to be born alive thereby ensuring the “Survival of the Species”, e.g. Zebras, Elephants, Wilderbeasts, Water Buffalo, Bos indicus etc.

The Pelvis Builders in M028’s pedigree include-

  • C. Gun Smoke J134, B. Frankel F510, D. Blaster B111, Right Time 338, Bon View New Design 1407. It is significant that these Pelvis Building set of bulls used at Dulverton have been superior performers for one of the Value Determining Traits – Feed Efficiency. Frankel, Right Time 338 and Blaster all perform in the top 1% for the trait M028 is in the top 4% for the Trait and 1407 in the top 3%. *M028’s STRUCTURE – M028 was (still is) Structurally very Sound, it’s this Soundness that promotes his amazing freedom of movement enabling him to search out and “settle” cycling females.
  • M028 has a medium frame pattern, his progeny inherit this trait plus his mid maturity pattern, evenness of Fat cover and ideal muscling. Dick Whale has scored 12 of his sons 38 (high B-) for muscling 3 as 37’s (B-) and 3 as 39’s (very high B-). We are happy to recommend M028’s progeny as Beef Yield improvers given their ideal Muscle to Fat Ratio and their even, adequate fat cover.
  • M028’s body capacity is a major plus, so too his thickness.

Value Determining Trait Performance of D. Medaglia M028

There is plenty of material on our website re our thoughts on Value in the Beef Chain.Quite simply there are Four Factors that determine Value-:       

  • Stayability       
  • Feed Efficiency         
  • Eating Quality         
  • Beef Yield  

These factors are made up of sets of Traits that must be considered in the genetic makeup of the Bovine “Down on the Farm”

M028’s progeny score very nicely for our V.D.T. Indicator as determined from the Breedplan Data. Four of his 18 sons score top 50% for Four of the Four V.D.T.‘s; Six of his 18 sons score Top 50% for three of the four V.D.T’s. This result pleases us as there are Genetic Antagonisms existing amongst these important Traits, Beef Yield and Marbling for example.

M028’s progeny also perform well for the The Value Determining Index Dick Whale has developed from the Igenity Beef Data set. Note nine of his sons score 50 and better, and to score between 50 and 65 is somewhat of an achievement. Select from within this band and you should improve genetic performance for those four Value Determining Traits

Be sure to have a second look at four of our favourite M028’s  Lot 17 Q149; Lot 24 Q063; Lot 26 Q203 and Lot 50 Q246.

Posted in : Chap's Chatter, News